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Madagascar banana
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Zingiberales
Family:	Musaceae
Genus:	Ensete
Species:	E. perrieri
Binomial name
Ensete perrieri (Claverie) Cheesman

The Madagascar banana or Ensete perrieri is a species of banana exclusively found in western Madagascar. The Madagascar banana is listed as critically endangered because of deforestation and climate change. However, some botanists believe that the Madagascar banana is a potential source of resistance to Panama disease, which wiped out the Gros Michel banana, and threatens the Cavendish banana, which is the main banana of international commerce.

Description

The Madagascar banana tree is a herbaceous tree. It loses all of its leaves in the dry season with only a pseudostem of leaf-sheaths remaining.

A typical Madagascar banana tree is 5 to 6 meters high, with a trunk swollen at the base into a thick tuber 2.5 m in circumference. The roots are white, cylindrical and thick. The stem is surrounded by persistent leaf sheaths and thus takes on the appearance of a large trunk swollen at its base. It measures, on average, 2 m in circumference at the collar, 2.5 m a little higher (at a distance of 50 centimeters), only 0.7 m at the level of the lower leaves.

Uses

Because of its large seeds, it is not palatable to eat. However, it may be possible to breed edible bananas with it. A traditional Malagasy use of the banana in southwest Madagascar is to grind the stems to a powder as a treatment for stomach-ache.

Taxonomy

A specimen was collected in Betsiboka in 1905 by a French botanist named, Pierre Claverie, and is kept in a herbarium in the National Museum of Natural History, France. The Madagascar banana is named after a French botanist, Joseph Marie Henry Alfred Perrier de la Bâthie, and was originally classified in the genus Musa, but was later reclassified as Ensete by Ernest Entwistle Cheesman. The Madagascar banana is a relative of the Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum).

Habitat and cultivation

Madagascar bananas are native to the dry tropical forests of western Madagascar, and in 2018, it was thought by botanists at Kew Gardens that there were only three known mature Madagascar banana trees left, but seedlings have been seen. The Madagascar banana has a genetic trait that allows them to be resistant to diseases. Madagascar bananas can be found within the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve.

See also

• Red banana
• Blue Java banana
• Flora of Madagascar

References

1. Allen, R. (2018) . Andriambololonera, S. (ed.). "Ensete perrieri (Madagascar Banana)". Ralimanana, H., Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. IUCN. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T98249345A98249347.en. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
2. ^ "Yes! We have no bananas: Why the song may come true again". BBC. Helen Briggs. 5 July 2018. Archived from the original on 25 December 2024. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
3. ^ Allen, Richard; Clarkson, James J; Ralimanana, Hélène (6 July 2018). "The critically endangered Madagascar Banana". Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Archived from the original on 20 December 2024. Retrieved 11 December 2024. Only five mature individuals of E. perrieri have been previously identified in the whole of Madagascar, and a recent survey has suggested that now only three of these may be left (Analavelona, Ampefy and Maintirano areas).
4. ^ "Ensete perrieri (Claverie) Cheesman | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Archived from the original on 15 December 2024. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
5. Jolly, Alison; Oberlé, Philippe; Albignac, Roland (2016-01-22) . Key Environments: Madagascar (1st ed.). Oxford: Pergamon Press, IUCN. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-4832-8595-5. OCLC 756437768. OL 39908881M – via Plants of the World Online.
6. Annales du Muśee colonial de Marseille (in French). Vol. ser.2:v.7. Aix-Marseille University Faculty of Sciences. 1909. pp. 74–86. OCLC 731007973.
7. Randrianarivony, Tabita N.; et al. (2016-12-23). "Value of useful goods and ecosystem services from Agnalavelo sacred forest and their relationships with forest conservation". Madagascar Conservation & Development. 11 (2): 47. doi:10.4314/mcd.v11i2.1. ISSN 1662-2510.
8. "Occurrence Detail 4061008915". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
9. "Musa perrieri Bonnier". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
10. Cheesman, E. E. (1947). "Classification of the Bananas: The Genus Ensete Horan". Kew Bulletin. 2 (2): 97–106. Bibcode:1947KewBu...2...97C. doi:10.2307/4109206. ISSN 0075-5974. JSTOR 4109206.

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Category Production

• IUCN Red List critically endangered species
• Ensete
• Flora of Madagascar